Squashed
by practicalamanda
Summary: To Blaine, being married to Kurt seemed like the simplest, most obvious thing in the world, especially when compared to proposing.


**Based on a wonderful prompt from the lovely, Holding on to You. Enjoy.**

This had not been a good week for Blaine Anderson. Most frustrating about this, was that Blaine had done just about everything in his power to ensure that it would be a good week. It was fashion week, possibly the most stressful time for Kurt at his job, at one of the most popular fashion blog websites. The usual stress compounded by the fact that this was Kurt's first year doing it as the editor in chief. When (not if Blaine was constantly reminding him) he made it to the other end alive, Blaine had planned to celebrate his boyfriend's amazing accomplishment with a dinner for two and the most romantic marriage proposal that Blaine could muster. In his mind, it would be perfect. Kurt would be on a high from making it through the week and Blaine could use that as an excuse to pamper him without making his plans too obvious.

He made his first mistake pretty early on. It was only Monday and already the stress was getting to Kurt, so Blaine decided to surprise him with some goodies from his bakery. Blaine had gotten a part time job at a cupcake shop to work his way through school. Little did he know that confectionery would prove an equally enticing and all together more practical career path than broadway star, and for the past two years, Blaine had run a successful pastry shop in the meat packing district.

"_Blaine, are you kidding me? You brought me cupcakes? I have eaten nothing but carrot sticks and seven cups of coffee today and you come waltzing in with something that looks like one of Katy Perry's bras?" Kurt was fuming and rummaging furiously through a large stack of important looking papers on his desk. "I need real food, Blaine. Not everyone can be a Keebler elf like you and live on sweets alone...god damn it where is that file!"_

_Blaine should have predicted this. Fashion week always turned his usually kind, goofy, albeit sassy boyfriend into Kurtzilla, but this was verging on some of his most outrageous behavior. And that was really saying something...Blaine was there when Rachel accidentally shrunk his best Gucci sweater._

"_Kurt I...I know you're under a lot of stress right now so I'm going to ignore what you just said, but maybe I could just go out and get you something a little more nutritious. I had no idea you hadn't eaten dinner yet._

"_Honestly, Blaine, it would be great if you could just go. I'll order something to the office later. I don't have time for this right now."_

_Blaine sighed and reluctantly left the office, dumping the bakery box on the intern's desk and telling her to enjoy._

In retrospect, it hadn't been one of Blaine's brighter ideas, marching into the lion's den when Kurt was obviously going to be a stressed out mess. Kurt did, however, come home later that night, apologizing profusely for his behavior and making up for it several times. He even managed to work the frosting from one of the cupcakes (that he had managed to recover from his intern) into one of his apologies. Needless to say, all was forgiven by morning.

Things only got worse from there, though. Determined not to take his rough week out on Blaine anymore, Kurt had instead taken it out on his own body, going entire days without eating very much and getting very little sleep. As much as Blaine hated to be berated by Kurt, seeing him put himself through hell was way worse.

That's when Blaine came up with his master plan. He would go through with the date, but instead of bringing Kurt to some stuffy restaurant, he would cook him a delicious, healthy meal from scratch at home, proving that he was capable of providing Kurt with something other than a prop from _Candy Land: the Musical_.

0000000000

The moment Kurt left for work on Saturday morning, clutching the yogurt that Blaine had forced into his hand, he sprung into action. His first stop was the Trader Joe's down the road. He hadn't planned a menu or anything, deciding to pick out a main ingredient that looked good and planning a meal around that. Blaine may have trained as a pastry chef, but he still had to go through the same preliminary cooking training as everyone else at culinary school and he could whip up a damn good meal when he put his mind to it.

Once he got back to their apartment, Blaine pulled out all of his new ingredients. The first thing that caught his eye when he entered the store was a huge display of delicious looking butternut squash, so Blaine quickly settled on an entree of squash ravioli with a spinach salad on the side. He even sorted the pip from the seeds so that they could be toasted and tossed into the salad.

When Kurt finally came home from his final hours of that years "hell week" as he affectionately named it, Blaine had finished cooking the meal and Kurt's favorite chocolate souffle was cooling next to the stove.

"Something smells good in here," Kurt called out slipping off his shoes and setting down his bag. He was exhausted and maybe a little worse for ware, but he it was over now, and Kurt was looking forward to sitting down to dinner with his boyfriend. "Blaine?" Kurt called.

"I'm in the kitchen, Kurt. I'm just putting dinner on the table."

Kurt was expecting some yummy food and definitely some snuggling, but he wasn't expecting the kitchen to be bathed in the soft glow of candlelight. The table was set for two with a glass of wine for each of them and a plate full of brightly colored pasta and vegetables."Blaine, this looks amazing, thank you," Kurt said moving to hug Blaine around the middle. "What did I do to deserve you? I've been a bitch all week and then I get to come home to this."

"Don't be silly. You were fine; and I like doing this stuff for you," Blaine said, brushing off the compliment and pulling out Kurt's chair, gesturing for him to sit.

Blaine took his own seat across form him and lifted up his wine glass in a toast, "To you and your many wonderful accomplishments," Blaine said, clinking their glasses together and waiting patiently for Kurt to take his first bight of food. "I know you liked those squash raviolis we had in Little Italy a few months ago. I thought I'd try my hand at it."

Kurt smiled excitedly and lifted a forkful to his mouth. Blaine then watched on in shock as Kurt's face went from serene to horrified in a matter of seconds, quickly followed by the mouthful being daintily deposited in his napkin, "Um...I don't think it will kill me, but I do think I'm going to throw up."

Blaine blanched considerably and stubbornly took a mouthful of his own, "What are you talking about? I followed the recipe exactly. I...," but Blaine was stopped abruptly when the flavor hit his mouth. It was rancid. The stupid squash was rancid. In all his determination to cook Kurt the perfect meal, he had forgotten the number one rule of cooking: always taste before you serve.

Kurt, detecting Blaine's panic, tried to salvage the situation, "Hey, it's okay. We still have the salad. It looks delicious and you know how I love my greens," Kurt was about to start eating again, but Blaine's hand on his wrist stopped him.

"The seeds, I tossed them into the salad too and I even used some of the puree in the salad dressing. It's all over the place. Nothing is safe," Blaine said, plunking his forehead down on the table in defeat.

Kurt cocked his head and furrowed his eyebrows in sympathy. He made his way to the other side of the table and started to rub Blaine's shoulders, "Hey, it's okay. It was the thought that counts and what I wanted most of all tonight was to be with you. Why don't we just order a pizza and we can eat it while we watch movies on the couch. I'll even let you get meat lovers."

It was then that the flood gates opened and Blaine set off on a rant, the likes of which Kurt hadn't heard since the last time Blaine's parents had visited. "You know what? This sucks. I drag my butt all the way downtown this morning to go to the Trader Joe's, because I know you like their produce, and then I have to carry that stupid squash all the way back to our apartment, and then my pasta roller is broken and I have to hand roll the dough. Do you know how long is takes to _hand roll_ ravioli dough?" Kurt stood there gaping, but not even attempting to interrupt him, "And then I sit here picking through that stupid pip for an hour trying to get all the seeds out for the salad and the god damned thing has the audacity to be RANCID. Well, let me tell you something, that grocery store has another thing coming because I'm marching myself right back tomorrow morning to give them a piece of my mind. Don't they know that they can't just go around selling rancid squash to a guy who's just trying to propose to his boyfriend. I mean it ruins the whole thing and..."

That's where Kurt's silence ended because there was no way he was just letting that last bit slide past, "I'm sorry. What did you just say?"

"I said it ruins the whole..."

Kurt cut him off again, "No, not that, before that."

"I said they can't go around selling..." but then it was Blaine's turn to cut himself off. "I can't believe I just said that. I am such an idiot." Blaine slumped down resignedly into his chair. There really was no fix the mess he'd made at this point. The only thing left to do was grovel for Kurt's forgiveness and swear up and down that his next proposal attempt would be worthy of his attention.

He was about to start some kind of improvised speech on what an idiot he was, when he felt Kurt's hands on each side of his head pulling him in for a heated kiss. When they finally pulled back from it, there were tears in Kurt's eyes. "Yes, yes, a million times, yes. Of course I'll marry you."

Blaine looked dumb struck, "Wh-What? You're saying yes? Just like that? That had to be the worlds most terrible marriage proposal."

"Blaine, don't be ridiculous. My wonderful boyfriend—no fiance, just cooked me an amazing, romantic dinner that he really thought I would like. Sure there was a bit of a snafu with the ingredients, but Blaine you have to know, you could have proposed to me in a sewage plant and I would still marry you. I love you and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, no matter how you ask."

0000000000

An hour later, the newly engaged couple was wrapped around each other on the couch, sharing one of Blaine's souffles, an empty pizza box on the coffee table. Every once in a while Blaine or Kurt would stop to admire the silver band that was now adorning Kurt's left ring finger and they would dissolve into more kisses and professions of love.

Suddenly Kurt remembered something, "Oh my god, in all of the commotion I completely forgot that I got something for you today at one of the designer's tents," Kurt got up to rummage through one of the inside pockets of his bag and he pulled out a small black jewelery box. "I um...wasn't sure when I was going to give this to you, but given recent events I think you should wear it," Kurt opened up the box to reveal a silver ring, similar to his own, but wider and with a loopy pattern engraved around the edges.

"You got me an engagement ring today," Kurt blushed and nodded. Blaine gave him a wide smile and quickly gestured for Kurt to put it on him and then Kurt resumed his position in Blaine's arms. "We really are perfect for each other, aren't we?" Kurt gave a small hum in agreement. "I can't wait to be married to you." To Blaine, being married to Kurt seemed like the simplest, most obvious thing in the world, especially when compared to proposing.


End file.
